Sphere

by Michael Crichton

else?"

  "Yes," Ted said. "What was the Russian reaction to this discovery?"

  "We haven't told the Russians," Barnes said.

  "You haven't told them?"

  "No. We haven't. "

  "But this is an incredible, unprecedented development in human history. Not just American history. Human history. Surely we should share this with all the nations of the world. This is the sort of discovery that could unite all of mankind - "

  "You'd have to speak to the President," Barnes said. "I don't know the reasoning behind it, but it's his decision. Any other questions?"

  Nobody said anything. The team looked at each other.

  "Then I guess that's it," Barnes said.

  The lights came on. There was the scraping of chairs as people stood, stretched. Then Harry Adams said, "Captain Barnes, I must say I resent this briefing very much. "

  Barnes looked surprised. "What do you mean, Harry?" The others stopped, looked at Adams. He remained seated in his chair, an irritated look on his face. "Did you decide you have to break the news to us gently?"

  "What news?"

  "The news about the door. "

  Barnes laughed uneasily. "Harry, I just got through telling you that the divers are cutting exploratory trenches, looking for the door - "

  " - I'd say you had a pretty good idea where the door was three days ago, when you started flying us in. And I'd say that by now you probably know exactly where the door is. Am I right?"

  Barnes said nothing. He stood with a fixed smile on his face.

  My God, Norman thought, looking at Barnes. Harry's right. Harry was known to have a superbly logical brain, an astonishing and cold deductive ability, but Norman had never seen him at work.

  "Yes," Barnes said, finally. "You're right. "

  "You know the location of the door?"

  "We do. Yes. "

  There was a moment of silence, and then Ted said, "But this is fantastic! Absolutely fantastic! When will we go down there to enter the spacecraft?"

  "Tomorrow," Barnes said, never taking his eyes off Harry. And Harry, for his own part, stared fixedly at Barnes. "The minisubs will take you down in pairs, starting at oh eight hundred hours tomorrow morning. "

  "This is exciting!" Ted said. "Fantastic! Unbelievable. "

  "So," Barnes said, still watching Harry, "you should all get a good night's sleep - if you can. "

  " 'Innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,' " Ted said. He was literally bobbing up and down in his chair with excitement.

  "During the rest of the day, supply and technical officers will be coming to measure and outfit you. Any other questions," Barnes said, "you can find me in my office. "

  He left the room, and the meeting broke up. When the others filed out, Norman remained behind, with Harry Adams. Harry never moved from his chair. He watched the technician packing up the portable screen.

  "That was quite a performance just now," Norman said.

  "Was it? I don't see why. "

  "You deduced that Barnes wasn't telling us about the door. "

  "Oh, there's much more he's not telling us about," Adams said, in a cold voice. "He's not telling us about any of the important things. "

  "Like what?"

  "Like the fact," Harry said, getting to his feet at last, "that Captain Barnes knows perfectly well why the President decided to keep this a secret. "

  "He does?"

  "The President had no choice, under the circumstances. "

  "What circumstances?"

  "He knows that the object down there is not an alien spacecraft. "

  "Then what is it?"

  "I think it's quite clear what it is. "

  "Not to me," Norman said.

  Adams smiled for the first time. It was a thin smile, entirely without humor. "You wouldn't believe it if I told you," he said. And he left the room.

  TESTS

  Arthur levine, the marine biologist, was the only member of the expedition Norman Johnson had not met. It was one of the things we hadn't planned for, he thought. Norman had assumed that any contact with unknown life would occur on land; he hadn't considered the most obvious possibility - that if a spacecraft landed at random somewhere on the Earth, it would most likely come down on water, since 70 percent of the planet was covered with water. It was obvious in retrospect that they would need a marine biologist.

  What else, he wondered, would prove obvious in retrospect?

  He found Levine hanging off the port railing. Levine came from the oceanographic institute at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His hand was damp when Norman shook it. Levine looked extremely ill at ease, and finally admitted that he was seasick.

  "Seasick? A marine biologist?" Norman said.

  "I work in the laboratory," he said. "At home. On land. Where things don't move all the time. Why are you smiling?"

  "Sorry," Norman said.

  "You think it's funny, a seasick marine biologist?"

  "Incongruous, I guess. "

  "A lot of us get seasick," Levine said. He stared out at the sea. "Look out there," he said. "Thousands of miles of flat. Nothing. "

  "The ocean. "

  "It gives me the creeps," Levine said.

  "So?" Barnes said, back in his office. "What do you think?"

  "Of what?"

  "Of the team, for Christ's sake. "

  "It's the team I chose, six years later. Basically a good group, certainly very able. "

  "I want to know who will crack. "

  "Why should anybody crack?" Norman said. He was looking at Barnes, noticing the thin line of sweat on his upper lip. The commander was under a lot of pressure himself.

  "A thousand feet down?" Barnes said. "Living and working in a cramped habitat? Listen, it's not like I'm going in with military divers who have been trained and who have themselves under control. I'm taking a bunch of scientists, for God's sake. I want to make sure they all have a clean bill of health. I want to make sure nobody's going to crack. "

  "I don't know if you are aware of this, Captain, but psychologists can't predict that very accurately. Who will crack. "

  "Even when it's from fear?"

  "Whatever it's from. "

  Barnes frowned. "I thought fear was your specialty. "

  "Anxiety is one of my research interests and I can tell you who, on the basis of personality profiles, is likely to suffer acute anxiety in a stress situation. But I can't predict who'll crack under that stress and who won't. "

  "Then what good are you?" Barnes said irritably. He sighed. "I'm sorry. Don't you just want to interview them, or give them some tests?"

  "There aren't any tests," Norman said. "At least, none that work. "

  Barnes sighed again. "What about Levine?"

  "He's seasick. "

  "There isn't any motion underwater; that won't be a problem. But what about him, personally?"

  "I'd be concerned," Norman said.

  "Duly noted. What about Harry Adams? He's arrogant. "

  "Yes," Norman said. "But that's probably desirable. " Studies had shown that the people who were most successful at handling pressure were people others didn't like - individuals who were described as arrogant, cocksure, irritating.

  "Maybe so," Barnes said. "But what about his famous research paper? Harry was one of the biggest supporters of SETI a few years back. Now that we've found something, he's suddenly very negative. You remember his paper?"

  Norman didn't, and was about to say so when an ensign came in. "Captain Barnes, here is the visual upgrade you wanted. "

  "Okay," Barnes said. He squinted at a photograph, put it down. "What about the weather?"

  "No change, sir. Satellite reports are confirming we have forty-eight plus-minus twelve on site, sir. "

  "Hell," Barnes said.

  "Trouble?" Norman asked.

  "The weather's going bad on us," Barnes said. "We may have to clea
r out our surface support. "

  "Does that mean you'll cancel going down there?"

  "No," Barnes said. "We go tomorrow, as planned. "

  "Why does Harry think this thing is not a spacecraft?" Norman asked.

  Barnes frowned, pushed papers on his desk. "Let me tell you something," he said. "Harry's a theoretician. And theories are just that - theories. I deal in the hard facts. The fact is, we've got something